It seems clear in retrospect that Truman’s internal policy was motivated at least as much by politics as by real concern. In fact he writes to Pennsylvania Governor George Earle, “People are very much wrought up about the Communist ‘bugaboo’ but I am of the opinion that the country is perfectly safe so far as Communism is concerned – we have too many sane people.”
But his judgement is cavalier, seriously underestimating, as it does, the American capacity for intolerance. It unleashes within America a series of witch hunts that last for a decade. The “Communist threat”, the “Red Scare”, the “Communist Conspiracy” all, in some real measure, overwhelm the sanity Truman took for granted.
